Bestaven crosses Antimeridian as Burton makes mast repairs (VG update 21Dec20)
Yannick Bestaven, who has been at the front of the fleet for four days, passed the Antimeridian at 1337hrs UTC yesterday afternoon.
Of the mental milestones that the Vendée Globe skippers tick off along the 24,410 nautical miles solo race round the world, the Antimeridian – or 180th Meridian – is a significant boost to morale.
Bestaven has had the advantage of staying in the better breeze than Charlie Dalin and third placed Thomas Ruyant but this looks set to be a complicated week ahead for the leaders as a high pressure will block their path midweek which could require something of a detour north to find better wind.
There’s the prospect of the top 11 skippers being within 800 nautical miles of each other at Cape Horn for the first day of 2021.
After arriving in the lee of the remote mist shrouded Macquarie Island, 840 miles south east of Tasmania, Louis Burton climbed the 28 metre mast of Bureau Vallée 2. He returned to the deck after two very hard, chilly hours during which he accomplished a partial repair to the mast track damage which had been preventing him from using his mainsail to its full hoist since early in the Indian Ocean. He reported to his team that as he drifted offshore the seas had become too rough to continue his work to finish the repair and deal with the electronics problem he had there too. And so the skipper from Saint Malo was considering anchoring in Lusitania Bay which is much more protected but always involves more risk anchoring and retrieving an anchor unassisted.
Hear from skippers around the fleet
Pip Hare is channeling Aretha Franklin
“This morning is an Aretha morning – she’s been blasting out in my cabin and on deck and I have been singing along like a strangled cat but she doesn’t seem to mind.”
“I’ve had an incredible couple of days run, Medallia has been on fire and has made a great job of sneaking along to the south of my competition and gaining some miles.”
“I’ve been pushing hard, driven on my best tunes and I think it’s impossible not to put your heart and soul into your work when backed up by Aretha.” (09.00 21Dec20)
Miranda Merron talks the ‘black art’ of electricity
Listen as Miranda Merron checks in with race organisers (09.30 20Dec20).
Watch a round-up of yesterday’s news from race organisers
Note: to view these videos in Safari, please ensure Flash player is enabled. Dates and times relate to when the media was published.
